The first mini-ITX Skylake motherboard we examined was the Asus Maximus VIII Impact. It's packed with features like discrete audio, a high-end voltage regulation system, and even an add-on fan controller card. Though an excellent board, it's the most expensive (US$240) model of its kind and overkill for the majority of DIYers.

The Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 and Z170N-WIFI take a decidedly more pragmatic approach. Though based on the same Z170 chipset and mini-ITX form factor, they're more barebones, offering little in the way of extras and premium features. Priced at about US$150 and US$135, they're two of the cheapest such models on the market. Spend any less and you're looking mostly at non-enthusiast H170 or B150 chipset mainboards with no overclocking capabilities.

Z170N-Gaming 5 box and contents.

Z170N-WIFI box and contents.

Being the more upscale model, the Z170N-Gaming 5 ships in a more decorative box adorned with promotional imagery for Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's popular multiplayer battle arena game. Both boards ship with the usual driver discs, documentation, and I/O shield, two SATA cables, as well as the same WiFi antenna with a magnetic base. The Gaming 5 also includes a case sticker and door hanger, and its SATA cables are a more fanciful silver color rather than boring black.

Z170N-Gaming 5.

Z170N-WIFI.

On paper, the two boards are more similar than different. Both have six SATA 6 Gbps ports, four of which are part of the two side-mounted SATA Express connector blocks, an M.2 slot with PCI-E x4 support on the back, an Intel-based 802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.2 adapter, and two DDR4 DIMM slots allowing up to 32GB of RAM. The Gaming 5 model supports slightly higher memory (3333 MHz) and sports a single Killer gigabit NIC, two display options, and a USB 3.1 connectivity. The WIFI model can handle up to 3200 MHz memory and is equipped with dual Intel ethernet controllers, a third display output courtesy of a second HDMI port, and is USB 3.0 compatible only.

Physically, they have nearly identical layouts, though the Gaming 5 has an 8-pin auxiliary CPU power port and dual heatsink cooling connected via heatpipe while the WIFI settles for a 4-pin plug and exposed VRMs, despite both boards using the same 5-phase power regulation system. The lack of cooling is not surprising for a budget model but it's odd to see it paired with the Z170 chipset which is primarily used for overclocking which puts extra thermal strain on the components. The Gaming 5 is more impressive visually, adopting slicker red/chrome accents rather than the grey used on the WIFI.

2 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
* Due to a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than the size of the physical memory installed.

Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors' website or 3rd party website

Most hardware/software vendors may no longer offer drivers to support Win9X/ME/2000/XP. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.

* The entire materials provided herein are for reference only. GIGABYTE reserves the right to modify or revise the content at anytime without prior notice.
* Advertised performance is based on maximum theoretical interface values from respective Chipset vendors or organization who defined the interface specification. Actual performance may vary by system configuration.
* All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.
* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.